Salladhor Saan

I'm not sure, where exactly this question should be asked, but... I have some doubts about the order of the actions (Salladhor Saan will be used in my example, but the question is more general and related to the order of the actions).

Two players. The first player controls some location, the second player controls Salladhor Saan). Marshaling phase begins.

Can the second player trigger Salladhor's ability before the first player do anything? OR the first player should done all his plans (put into play some characters, locations, attachments, play events and/or trigger abilities on the just played characters and locations)?

Thank you!

You can post general rules questions in the "Rules Questions" forum instead of trying to choose a specific card's comments.

- At the beginning of the Marshaling phase, the First Player becomes the "Active Player" and collects gold equal to his/her current income count (plot card plus modifiers).

- There is then a "Player Action" window. This window works like any other player action window in any other phase - i.e., starting with the First Player, all players take turns triggering actions (either "Any Phase" or "Marshaling" in this particular case) until all players pass consecutively. The only difference in the Marshaling phase is that the Active Player, in addition to triggering "Marshaling" and "Any Phase" actions, may pay gold to Marshal characters, locations and attachments from his/her hand.

- Once this Player Action window closes (because all players pass on their chance to trigger and/or play something in a row), the next player in line becomes the "Active Player" and collects their gold.

- There is then another "Player Action" window, the same as any other, but with a different player as the Active Player, and thus able to pay gold to Marshal characters, locations and attachments.

- Repeat until all players have had a turn as Active Player.

A couple of things to notice:

1. When you are the Active Player, you do not get to marshal everything you want without interruption. You marshal (or trigger) something, then your opponent gets the chance to do something, then you marshal (or trigger) something else, then your opponent gets a chance to do something, and so on. So, for example, if you want to trigger 3 Stormlands Fiefdoms to lower the cost to marshal Salla here by a total of 3, your opponent actually has the chance to trigger something of their own between each Fiefdom knelt/triggered and you marshaling the card. People usually forget that this is how it works because players other than the Active Player tend not to have much to do in this window.

2. When a new player becomes the Active Player, it doesn't change who the First Player is. Since the First Player always has the first opportunity to trigger things in each Player Action window, this means that the FIRST PLAYER can actually trigger an "Any Phase" or "Marshaling" ability before an opponent who just became the Active Player (and got their gold) gets the chance to marshal anything.

So, to specifically address your scenario above:

- When the Marshaling phase begins, the First Player becomes Active Player and collects his gold.

- As First Player, he gets to take the first action in the subsequent Player Action window. As the Active Player, that action can be to play a character, location or attachment from his hand.

- BUT, the First Player gets to do one thing only, and then the second player can trigger Salla's ability. So, if the first thing the First Player does is kneel a Street of Steel (to lower the cost of a MIL character), Salla would be able to then discard the First Player's Street of Silk before he gets a chance to use it.

- Note that if the positions were reversed (the First Player has Salla and the second player just became the Active Player), the First Player actually could trigger Salla before the second player, as Active Player, gets to do anything after collecting his/her gold.